Between how he played Leige Maximo in the 13 Primes model and what he was saying to Starscream, it was clear he had positioned the situation exactly as it happened, with Unicron decending and the final choice to evacuate with only the population on metroplex in Starscream's hands.

But Starscream was supposed to say "leave", instead he said "I trust windblade" which totally goes against the role that Shockwave repeatedly told Starscream that he was fated to play.

 

I don't think it was that in depth. I'm pretty sure Shockwave just counted on Unicron being poisoned by the Talisman. I still don't understand why he wants to build an empire.

 

actually, and I might be wrong, but I think IDW actually owes that to Machinima (between episode 1 and 3 the flashbacks on megatronus and solus prime)
I don't know if at the time of writing IDW had already defined that part of the mythos too and they just took it or...

 

I’ve found the preview!
Preview: Transformers: Unicron #5 (of 6) - Graphic Policy

Edit: I found out a page was made already discussing this. Here’s the link:
Unicron #5 preview

 

Thanks for this.

 

Wow can I just say the image of Unicron's presence in every panel is the stuff of NIGHTMARES....

 

Honestly, I will say at the moment that I am impressed that the writers have really given NO indication where things are going to land at the end of the month. Cybertron is destroyed, heroes and villains are dying left and right and the current cabal of fighters (OP, Windblade, Faireborn, GI Joe, Soundwave, Dinobots, Trypticon, etc) is something that, 15 years ago, no TF fan could have DREAMED of as canon. I have had my problems with RiD/OP, particularly post Dark Cybertron, but I can't deny, looking at where we were compared to where we are now, it's amazing what IDW has done for the mythos of Transformers.

 

I think she might be at this point, but who knows. My worry is that by the end it's only going to be a handful of characters and then what? I mean do they just live out their lives on earth?

Agreed. It's like, let's just wrap this up, forget the other plot lines, must focus on this to end it before we reboot next year. Speaking of, have they announced a date for that at all?

Well of course he would trust Windblade at this point. They have this weird dynamic going on, and it's one that I tend to like for him because, up to this point in media, Starscream (save Armada) hasn't really been shown as the type of person to trust and rely on others and in allowing him to trust Windblade it let him grow...then Barber took that growth away and now we're back to what he was during Furman's run. *sighs*

I have to wonder if Shockwave will be able to recover all of this? Or is he going to end up dead by the end?

Maybe not dreamed of, but I would have thought that there would have been more to do with OP and Megs in regard to how this ends, as they were the start of it. They have done a good job with the Mythos, but I think some of it will eventually change again, much like how Marvel and DC keep the best and the less than good ends up being shuttled off to the wayside so that newer explorations can happen.

 

Fair enough and can’t wait to see that preview they showed at NYCC were Optimus & Arcee are on a hill while aileron is running to them

 

My guess, and I'll be honest here, regarding the situation that is going on with the comic, they probably put those two together because most of the other couples that are around are likely not going to make it to the end of the comic, so it'll be down to showing at least one set of a "happy" couple while the others are single.

I'm curious too about that. Seems like Arcee is thinking something over given her looking down as if she's contemplating something.

 

What Shockwave's probably thinking:

 

I don’t know what both Optimus & Arcee are about though

 

Disagree a bit on this. In a lot of cases the writers are the ones that actually start this out with their own interactions of the characters in their heads as they write. What comes out on the page tends to be hints of the writer's own view point in some cases about the characters or they are hoping to pull in various readers with how they showcase moments. Yes it depends on how we see things, but also how the writer and artist present this. I mean, if you look at any piece of art with no captions it really depends on how the artist makes the characters stand. Too close and a character's head tilted and possibly a leg pointed in body language tends to mean that the character is attracted in some way to another. While their dialogue may be a straight up "So did you see the new Goosebumps Movie?" "Yeah that was awesome." the implication with the body language from the artist tells us that there may be more going on there between these two that have yet to be shown.

Conversely, as with the case of Mark Waid and G. Willow Wilson, you could have two writers that actually pair their characters and want it to happen but either there is no way to allow it due to time, cross overs or editors, or the one writer is swapped out to another book before it can happen. So word gets out that they wanted this pairing and thus people look for it in the writing and drawing because it's become known.

Romance is, as most know, part of the human experience in one way or another. Even if you are ace and have no romantic feelings, you can, in some ways, enjoy the idea of romance in a story or part of a tale. Homer's epics were built around Romance in the background. Hell it was a love triangle with Helen in the middle of two guys. Then you have Penelope waiting on her husband to get back and the question of will he make it on time. Go back to Egypt and you have Isis and Osiris, and Hades and Persephone, or Zeus and Hera, etc. So it's natural to want that sort of situation in a show or story. Even with a bunch of robots.

Okay fair enough. Still seems way to complicated for Shockwave, and now he's got a mess on his hands. I hope that Trypticon is safe given the situation with the ending coming up in November (hopefully). Okay but we haven't seen that yet. Until we see it happen in say Lost Light or Unicron 5 or OP, it's hard to say that they're going to mourn. Sure you can say off panel but that is lazy writing. I mean I agree it could be done, I just don't trust Barber to do it. Not that he's a bad writer, just not one that I feel carries the right amount of weight for this ending.

Same here. I was hoping to see that expanded on, maybe to see Starscream show more of an honest personality as TAAO went on, but given the cancellation, it feels like they've stripped all that growth from him and are now back to "Well let's just make him a little git." And it's sad to see Windblade being treated in the same manner.

With Screamer and Windblade it's not the fighting it's the dynamic. She brings out better aspects of him because she's seeing past the ego and the many many issues he has, and he, for all his attitude, has given her footing to stand up for things that she believes to be right over just following along with the others and doing as told. It's made her a bolder person over all, and that's the thing that I like about them.

1. But because it's well-trodden you can do many things with it, like dig into some of the psychological aspects of it, change it up and deconstruct it, or alter it in some way that makes the dynamic of it more interesting and, on top of that, because it's so well known, you can then do some short hand because readers will get it quicker.
2. Again, it's sort of a dynamic thing. Most cases people only point to the moments when the characters are arguing, but the reality is a lot of the time they do get along and talk normally to one another. In some cases, while the fighting is not a common thing, tension between people that like one another can happen and that comes out in heated debates or different view points and the like. So while the "They fight then kiss" idea isn't real in most cases, there is tension that can and does build up between people that are attracted to one another. Visually it makes a moment more dynamic when you have them yelling vs. having them just stand there and show off the tension in other ways.

Again it depends on how the writer is writing things. I know people that were very aggressive competition wise in college that ended up together and in one case married, namely because the tension between them could illicit reactions from one another but under that there was a level of mutual respect and admiration in there.

I agree it could be just mutual respect, but Barbar is not even giving it that. Yes I know Aileron x Arcee focused on the RID and OP books, but if you didn't get those books, if you were only getting LL or TAAO, you'd have no idea who she was or what role she was playing in any of this, Thus...it comes out of no where. And that's the thing about Starscream, it's rare in this iteration to have him trust anyone. Him trusting her was key to his growth and now that's kind of been taken away. We even see it in the preview of Unicron 5. There's a lack of what he was in TAAO here and he's back to Starscream from Prime.

 

Gotta love how Bludgeon of all people made it to the finale. Also the bridge crew, all of them are praising Unicron and that they one guy "Guys I still can't feel my face" I love it.

 

Agreed. I don't think that it would be that hard to have it come across with a lot of characters. Roberts has been doing it in Lost Light and even before then with MtMtE, and we've seen it in other Publishers. Marvel doing it in the Avengers, Thunderbolts, X-men, and DC with Teen Titans, Justice League, Young Justice, and over several different books Super Books and Bat Books, and Wonder Books. So this isn't something writers can't do, it's the issue of them cancelling TAAO before it could dig deeper and cutting things short with the reboot here. Love relationship or a friendship would have been great to see, because Screamer is such an interesting character and it would be nice to see them develop an actual real close relationship with him. They were doing that with Bee, and now that's been tossed, and so has the Windblade one, to make him into a craven character again, which he really isn't.

Thing is with TAAO they were having that connection, or getting to that point. She actually got to the point where she was in his head and actually got to see more of him than he was willing to show others. And one could say the same of Windblade and Starscream, but Barber torpedoed that relationship, along with the one with Bee, which is weird because you would think that they would at least allow that to go forward, but nope. We were starting to see Starscream start to break and questioning his own actions but then TAAO ended and all story lines dropped in favor of Shocky's plans and now it's throw everything to see where it sticks. It seems odd to me why we got Megatron, Skywarp, Thundercraker, Soundwave and several other Cons getting arcs to help them grow and anything that is changing Starscream got scuttled.

Agreed. It feels like we're doing 90s Image comics or 90s comics in general, which really sucks because half these characters didn't need to die. I'm betting it's going to be something like Prime and Megatron vs Shockwave on Unicron, or Shockwave kills himself to stop it or something weird and everyone says how sad and tragic Shockwave was. Because I sometimes feel Shocky is the pet character. Like they're trying to make him a Lex or Dark Saeid, but he's not.

 

I do agree that TAAO should’ve continued on to the point where it could end alongside its fellow books.

 

Point is. TAAO shouldn’t have been canceled and neither should IDW.

 

TAAO wasn't sellling and it got cancelled. It's just business.

 

There’s a review for the unicron issue 5

 

where? i am dying to find out how it went.